


Phantom Light

by Da_Vinci_101 (Metonic_Cycle)



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Tomb Raider & Related Fandoms, Tomb Raider (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Additional Characters TBA - Freeform, All Tomb Raider (Survival Timeline) Games are Canon, Apple of Eden, Assassin's Creed Comics Aren't Canon Either, But Some Events Are Still Referenced, But she will soon enough, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Fantasy, Historical Inaccuracy, Historical References, Lara doesn't know shit about the Assassins and Templars yet, Multi, Only the first 3 Assassin's Creed Games are Canon, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Tomb Raider Comics Aren't Canon, crossovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:55:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27941858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metonic_Cycle/pseuds/Da_Vinci_101
Summary: “A famous explorer once said, that the extraordinary is in what we do, not who we are. I'd finally set out to make my mark- to find adventure. But instead, adventure found me. In our darkest moments… when life flashes before us… we find something…“Something that keeps us going.”~Lara Croft, Tomb Raider (2013)“I can make the right difference,” Lara murmured, not noticing the tear slowly trickling down her cheek. “If I can stop Trinity, then I can stop Abstergo too.” Her chest shuddering softly as she reached into her pouch for the box of matches inside.There’s no other way.She opened the box and pulled out one of the matches. She hesitated a moment, and then- closing her eyes- she scraped the match along the box. She heard it catch, instantly smelling the stuff burning, and then she threw it onto her father’s desk.Opening her eyes, she could see that the desk had caught fire, as well as everything on it.“I’m sorry.” Lara turned away from the fire, a few more tears trickling down her face.
Relationships: Ezio Auditore da Firenze/Leonardo da Vinci, Lara Croft & Samantha Nishimura, Lara Croft/Samantha Nishimura
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	1. Romulus

The thrill-seeking archeologist whipped her head up, tugging lightly on the rope currently suspending her in the dusty old shaft to make sure it was still secure. Thin streams of light filtered through the ancient metal seal’s gaps, though it was not enough to illuminate the shaft.

Sighing, Lara tugged an unused glowstick free from her belt and placed her hand on either end of it. With pressure, it gave a sickening crack not unlike the kind she would hear when violently twisting a neck.

Even with Dominguez dead, Trinity was still very much alive. Falling apart, for sure. But still alive. Lara couldn’t be among the living if _they_ were still out there. To ignore this threat to the world and its people would have been too much for her to bear. So, she started searching for the surviving factions. Hunting them, tracking them, chasing them down, and then slaughtering the lot of them.

And it seemed that while Dominguez and those directly under his command had been primarily concerned with the Silver Box and using it to remake the world, other factions were searching for… something else.

After wiping out one of their camps in the Cansiglio Forest, Lara had scoured it for any survivours lest they try to escape her. While tearing through the flimsy tents one by one, Lara found in what appeared to be the camp leader’s tent a series of ancient Italian manuscripts from the Renaissance era. Most of them were encrypted designs for weapons (as Lara later came to find out after she decrypted them). However, one of them appeared to be a torn page from a book- and, unlike the other documents she found, it seemed to be a journal entry.

The date was smudged, as was the signature. But, aside from some smeared ink here and there, as well as crinkles in the pages due to the carelessness of the Trinity soldiers, the page was intact, and Lara translated it as follows:

Even as my sister sleeps and my mother sits beside the bed, silent as she was when I returned home… I still cannot believe what has happened. They are dead. My brothers, my father. Even when I have seen it with my own eyes, I still cannot believe it. I should have been _faster._ No. I should not have trusted Uberto with those documents. Had I not, perhaps they would still be alive. 

But I trusted him. So they are dead. And _he_ is dead too, by _my_ blade. 

My Uncle Mario has offered to teach me how to fight. It seems that he wants me to join the Brotherhood. However, I have my own agenda. I will accept his training for the time being. And, when my training is finished, I will use those skills to protect my mother and sister for the journey ahead. We are not safe here. We will _never_ be safe here. And they are all I have left. 

I cannot fail them, like I failed my father and my brothers. 

Lara could not believe her eyes when she first read the document. In her hands, she held what could have been a page written by the assassin of Uberto himself. A mystery, over five _hundred_ years old…

Who was this person? And what happened to them?

And where was the rest of the book, for that matter?

As Lara continued to hunt down and clear out the remaining camps Trinity had set up in Italy, she found more manuscripts. None of them had to do with the mysterious individual who had written that page.

Until, two weeks later, she had searched the excavation site near the last Trinity camp she had wiped out. There were several rows of long, wooden tables, all of which had tools for carefully brushing dirt and other miscellaneous materials off of fragile artifacts, as well as the artifacts themselves stowed away in sealed plastic bags. Among them were sealed plastic bags also containing pages from books and rolled up ancient scrolls.

As Lara examined all of the bags, not removing their contents so at to avoid accidentally damaging them, she found it. Another torn page, with _that same handwriting._

I have located the last Lair of Romulus. The other five I have already found, and I retrieved all the keys. Now only one Lair remains, as does the key inside. It is underneath the ruins of the Colosseum, just outside of the city of Rome. With all six, I will finally be able to unlock the gate blocking me from the armour I discovered in the underground chamber years ago. 

And then, I shall turn my attention back to my main task. Stopping Cesare Borgia and his plans. 

This I, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, swear. 

And that is what led Lara to where she was now: hanging by her harness, on a rope, in the middle of an old shaft that supposedly led to this mysterious “Lair of Romulus,” searching for more evidence of the existence of this person Ezio. The original entrance had been completely sealed off, so the archeologist had to search for another way in.

“So much for wanting to be among the living,” Lara muttered to herself, her voice tinged with disappointment, as she hooked the glowstick- which was now shining a soft, bright yellow- to the loop around her belt. And then she started slowly lowering herself down.

_One…_

_Two…_

_One…_

_And two…_

Soon, her boots touched the bottom. The ground was wet, and gave slightly underneath her weight with a soft _squish._ Lara turned, detaching the rope from her harness and pulling the glowstick off her belt. She lifted it up, illuminating the Lair’s half cylindrical stone walls and ceiling, as well as the muck covered floor. There were cobwebs everywhere, and even some fresh webs sprinkled here and there. Some pieces of bones littered the floor as well, and Lara took care to step around them. She pulled her climbing axe off her belt and tore away the cobwebs in front of her with it.

The corridor went on like this for several metres, before opening up into a much larger chamber. Crumbled columns and pieces of statues lay half-sunken in the mud, splotches of the stuff scattered all over the stone. The ceiling itself was high enough to where the light of Lara’s glowstick couldn’t reach, leaving it shrouded in darkness.

Lara trudged towards the nearest wall, brown eyes scanning the cracked, crumbling stone for anything of interest. She paused, and stepped closer to an aged mural carved into the wall. She hooked her climbing axe onto the loop on her belt and reached a hand out to gently brush away the dust and dried dirt clogging the carved impressions in the stone. “Romulus… this mural depicts him killing his brother Remus… impaling him in the chest with a staff.” She paused. “But the staff… its design… it doesn’t add up. Its style doesn’t match that of other weapons they would’ve used during that time period.” She squinted, leaning closer to the mural. “Wait… I’ve _seen_ this weapon somewhere before… but _where?”_

 _Danger,_ the back of her mind whispered softly. Lara’s hand lowered back down to her climbing axe. _Danger._ Her instincts, sixth sense- whatever you wanted to call it, detected something amiss. And they were almost never wrong.

In a split second, Lara was whirling around, climbing axe in hand and raised high, shades of grey mixed with bright red flashing in her vision. Another split second, and the blade of her axe was tearing through flesh, spilling the familiar dark red fluid everywhere, staining her hand, her glove, and her sleeve. Her would-be assailant gagged, clutching his throat as blood continued trickling from it, seeping out between his fingers. And then he fell, exhaling air from his lungs for the last time before even hitting the ground with a _thud._ His body lay sprawled face-down, the knife that had been in his hand now stuck in the mud a few inches away from his hand. Lara didn’t need to turn his body over to tell that this man was definitely _not_ a Trinity soldier.

She pushed his body over onto its back with the toe of her boot and knelt down, taking a moment to study his slack face and lifeless, glassy eyes, before examining his clothing. The lack of an insignia on his uniform confirmed it.

This man wasn’t a Trinity soldier.

But, then, who was he? _Danger,_ her instincts whispered louder. Lara gripped her climbing axe tighter in response.

The walkie-talkie on the man’s belt crackled to life.

_“Mark, have you find the girl yet?”_

A pause as the voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie waited for a response.

_“Mark, do you copy?”_

Another, and slightly shorter pause.

 _“Mark, this is no time for_ games. _Now either get your ass in gear and respond_ this instant, _or I’ll come down to the lower levels and punish you for your insubordination myself. Might as well save the boss the trouble of having to do it_ himself.”

Lara removed the walkie-talkie from the man’s belt and then stepped away from the body. She switched the device off and- after glaring pointedly at the Abstergo logo stamped on the back of it (the almost monopoly-like business was becoming rather suspiciously popular among the world’s populace)- then hooked it to her own belt for the time being. Perhaps she could find a use for it later.

_Who are these people?_

_Why are they here, and what do they want?_

_And how- if at all- are they connected to Trinity?_

At the moment, Lara didn’t know the answers to any of those three questions now burning in her mind.

But, one way or another, she would find out.


	2. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rewrote the ending of the previous chapter a bit, so you might want to reread it to avoid any confusion.

Lara crouched low behind the rotting wooden barricade, stuffing her dying glowstick in her pocket now that the sunlight from the cracks in the stone ceiling above where enough to light her way. About ten metres down the corridor stood a pair of armed soldiers, both wearing the same uniform as the man who tried to attack Lara earlier.

_No insignia…_

“I can’t believe they sent us down here to look for some _archeologist,”_ one soldier sneered.

“She’s not just _any_ archeologist, you _moron,”_ the other soldier instantly retorted, a know-it-all tone entering his voice. “Ever hear about Yamati? She’s the reason that it’s safe to travel in the Dragon’s Triangle now. Apparently, some ancient body-snatching Japanese queen was the one responsible for all the storms.”

“You’re making this up.”

“Read the damn reports the boss sent us if you don’t believe me. I mean, he did send them to us for a reason.”

While the two continued to bicker, Lara quickly tiptoed to another barricade, staying as low to the ground as possible. Underneath the rotting barricade, part of the stone floor had been replaced by wood at some point. Wood that was in even worse condition than the barricade, Lara realised, stiffening. And she was right on top of it.

The wood creaked. The soldiers started to turn their heads. The wood cracked- no, it _shattered,_ sending Lara tumbling down the sloped hole underneath. _“Nrggh!”_ She crashed through another layer of wood that had been in the hole for who knows what reason and then hit the hard stone surface at the bottom. She was sprawled across the ground, coughing and gasping for air, the bruises already forming on her battered body. Her vision was blurry for a moment, and her ears were filled with a painful ringing.

That undoubtedly drew those two soldiers’ attention.

Which meant that if Lara didn’t hurry and do something fast, she might just find herself in the middle of a firefight. That spurred the archeologist into action. She pushed herself onto her feet, her vision starting to clear. The ringing in her ears was starting to die down. Lara pulled an unused glowstick off her belt and cracked it.

Instantly, a soft glow washed the chamber.

Another mural on the wall caught her attention- and despite the fact that she knew she had to move, Lara approached it, studying it with intense curiosity. “Romulus again… standing atop the Palatine Hill… holding that staff… I _know_ I’ve seen it before, but _where??”_ She paused, the gears of her mind whirring with colliding thoughts. “Wait… that piece…” Lara lifted her free hand, her fingers brushing the small, orb-shaped part of Romulus’ staff. “The painting of Moses my father found during one of his excavations! He held this same staff! But where else have I seen it?? And how did it… unless… there’s more than one-”

Lara’s thoughts were diverted for the moment as she heard voices shouting, echoing down the hole she fell through.

“Something fell through here- we think she might be down there!”

“Shit,” Lara muttered, glancing over at the hole for a second before turning away and sprinting down the tunnel ahead. She then side-stepped upon spotting another corridor to her left. The archeologist crouched low, pulling her climbing axe off her belt. “If only I brought my bow…” Two minutes later, and she heard the _thud_ of feet hitting the ground. _Danger._ Her grip on her axe tightened.

Lara’s vision started to shift, the saturation of her surroundings fading. As she peered around the corner, she could see her targets splashed in a bright red. And then something fell through the hole, clinking as it hit the stone floor, and rolling across it, bumping into one of the soldier’s boots.

“Hey, what’s that?” the soldier asked. Lara could hear the faint, tell-tale beeping. His companions stared dumbly at it, apparently not quite grasping the fact that their lives were about to end at this very moment if they didn’t _move._

The grenade exploded, incinerating the soldiers standing closest to it and flinging shrapnel into the rest. Lara heard the threatening rumble as the walls of the room the soldiers were in shattered. Then the room collapsed on top of the bodies, burying them.

For them, there was no coming back from that.

Lara turned and flung herself forward, sprinting as fast as she could through the hallway. She put her axe back on her belt and yanked the walkie-talkie she had stolen from the man she killed earlier off her belt, pressing the _On_ button. The device crackled to life, squelching loudly, before the electronically distorted sounds of gunfire and voices echoed throughout the corridor.

_“Dammit, Marcus, I thought you said they didn’t know we were here! Guess what??! They know we’re here, and- shit, SHIT- here comes one of them now- ARRGHH!!”_

_“Commander Marcus, we’re being overrun- we can’t hold out like this much longer- nghhh!”_

_“This isn’t a_ mission _\- it’s a goddamn_ death trap! _We were sent here to_ die!”

“They’re killing off the soldiers,” Lara muttered as she listened while cycling through the radio frequencies. The sounds of gunfire and slashing continued to fill her ears, as did the screams of those who were being killed.

And then, on the last frequency Lara had switched the walkie-talkie to, she heard a feminine voice that seemed all-too familiar- and yet… she couldn’t place it.

_“Vous tomberez tous.”_

“‘You will all fall,’” Lara whispered to herself in translation. 

_“Lara Croft.”_

Lara skidded to a stop, dead in her tracks.

_“I know you can hear me. I saw you take that walkie-talkie off the body of that man you killed.”_

Lara pressed the little microphone button on the side of the walkie-talkie. _“Who_ are you, and what do you _want?”_

 _“Who_ we _are is_ none _of your business. And what we want is for you to go home, and_ not _get involved in this mess. This isn’t your war, and you’ll only get yourself killed.”_

“I’ll survive,” Lara shot back, her voice blunt. “And I _need_ answers. I saw something down here… something… that doesn’t make sense. I _have_ to _understand._ And neither _you_ or _these_ soldiers are going to stop me.”

A pause.

_“Very well, Lara. While currently my… colleagues and I pose no threat to you, we cannot and will not guarantee your safety. You’re on your own. Your life is your responsibility.”_

“Tch, that’s not _news_ to me.” With that having been said, Lara turned off the microphone and hooked the walkie-talkie back onto her belt. The archeologist remained on her guard, ready to fight back should anyone attack her as she slowly stalked her way down the Lair tunnel. She rounded the corner, her climbing axe in hand and at the ready, and her glowstick in her other hand, still lighting her way.

Lara stepped into what appeared to be a small chamber- the style of the architecture as well as the current state of the stone used to build it indicated that the chamber had been added more recently- perhaps sometime in the sixteenth century. In the centre of the chamber sat a stone coffin with an insignia carved deep into the lid. To the right of it stood a stone table with various items placed neatly on it- presumably the belongings of whoever was

“I don’t recognise this symbol,” Lara murmured as she approached the coffin. Her eyes then trailed down to read what was inscribed in Italian, just below the insignia. “‘Here lie the remains of Mentor Ezio Auditore da Firenze…’” Lara stood there for a long moment, silent as she processed the words she just read. “You… you were laid to rest here. But when? How did you die? And who were you a mentor to?”

Lara shook her head, a light chuckle leaving her lips. Of course Ezio wouldn’t answer her. He was dead.

“Shit- how long do you think it’ll be before they find us too?” a voice from the tunnel Lara had come through echoed. “At least half of us are dead- it’s only a matter of time before we’re next.”

“I dunno,” another voice answered. “But we were sent here to do a job, so let’s do it. Croft has to be somewhere in this… whatever the hell this place is.”

“Damn-” Lara whipped her head towards the table that had Ezio’s belongings on it. She snatched up a silvery gold bow and leather quiver with similar metal decorations and a furry rim (which thankfully and somewhat conveniently still had arrows in it), sliding the latter item over her shoulders. She then picked up an old leather bracer with metal decorations on it. Flipping it over, she could see a thin slot, with the tip of a slightly rusted blade protruding from it. “Hmm.” Lara slid it onto her left arm and then turned her attention towards the hallway, where she could hear the soldiers’ voices getting closer. Lara could figure out how it worked later- her primary focus now was to get out of her _alive_.

She crouched low behind Ezio’s coffin, murmuring a soft apology in advance lest it be damaged when the fighting started.

Lara nocked an arrow to the bowstring and slowly drew it back. “Good- the string still holds strong.” As the first soldier rounded the corner, still conversing with his companion, she took aim, pointing the arrow at his neck. And then she let it loose.

“Nrrack-arrgg-!”

The soldier was dead before he even hit the ground.

“We got company!” The other soldier was on high alert now, reloading his assault rifle and waving over however many other soldiers he and his now deceased companion had been searching the Lair with. A second or two later, three other soldiers came running.

Lara nocked another arrow to her bowstring and pulled it back. She aimed for the closest soldier’s neck and one second later, the arrow was buried in his neck.

“There she is!”

“Kill her- kill her _now!”_

“I’d like to see you _try!”_ Lara slid her bow over her head and shoulders, then pulled her climbing axe off her belt. “Hhrrg!” She hurled herself over the lid of the coffin and upon landing on the other side, buried her axe deep in the chest of the nearest soldier. She yanked it out, ignoring his body as he fell, and scrambled to the side to avoid the spray of bullets being fired at her. While the one soldier busied himself wasting ammunition trying to hit her, his only still-breathing companion unsheathed a sword and charged towards her. Lara sidestepped him and, swinging her axe, buried it in his leg. She yanked it out a second later and sunk it into his back. The other soldier was about to use this moment to fire, so Lara swung the man’s body up and he caught the bullets instead.

“Shit, _shit!_ Forget this! I’m out of here- I didn’t sign up for _this!”_ The last soldier turned tail and sprinted down the tunnel away from Lara.

Lara decided to let him go- at least he had slightly more brains than the many Trinity soldiers she’d encountered over the years. Besides, if he were to tell his superiours of what transpired, perhaps whoever they worked for would back off.

At least, that was what she hoped.

But she knew she was _never_ that lucky. Whoever these people were, whoever they worked for… she knew that this was only the beginning. How did she get herself into these situations anyway? Oh yes, that’s right- because she apparently couldn’t stay away from century-old tombs with ancient and possibly mystical secrets. Also, dead, mummified people.

If anything, the soldier was probably just going to call reinforcements. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to let him go, then.

It was too late now, she supposed.

Lara turned her head to glance at Ezio’s coffin. Somehow- and very thankfully- it survived the fight undamaged. The floor and the walls, on the other hand, were a different story, as they had been pumped full of bullet holes, and the floor was stained with blood and riddled with bodies. Sighing, Lara hooked her climbing axe back onto her belt and knelt down, removing a pistol from the holster of one of the soldiers’ bodies. She pulled out the weapon’s cartridge. “There’s still some ammunition left in this one.” She slid the muzzle under her belt and removed her bow from her shoulders, already nocking another arrow.

The saturation left her vision again, washing the room and the corridor ahead of her in varying shades of grey. No one else was nearby.

She decided that was a good thing. Still, it would be best to air on the side of caution.

* * *

 _Three days later… Croft Manor…_

Lara practically flung herself into her desk chair, exhausted. She turned it around with her feet so it would face the window, allowing her to admire the gardens in the courtyard while she tried to gather her thoughts. Sunlight filtered through the window, brightening up the office and giving it an airy, roomy feel. Not only was she attacked by mysterious soldiers and contacted by an even more mysterious third party while trying to investigate that Lair of Romulus, but she had neck tension building up the whole flight back home, and now she her head was pounding painfully on one side, and a slight ache was building in the other side.

In other words? These past couple of days had been less than pleasant to her.

At least now that she was back home, she could rest up a bit before going through her father’s books. She knew she had seen that staff in a painting of Moses, but- and a knock on her office door interrupted her thoughts, as well as intensified the pounding in her head.

Lara groaned. “Winston, I’m not feeling that well right now. Can you come back later?”

“Uhhh, last I checked, I’m _not_ your wrinkly old butler,” came the quick-witted response. That voice- it could only be-

Lara whirled around in her chair, her boots hitting the floor and pushing her up out of the chair. “Sam!” In less than a second, she was racing towards her best friend and pulling her into her arms. After a moment, Lara pulled away, a wide smile spread across her lips. “It’s been so long! How was Australia?”

“It was fun, aside from some wallabies breaking into my apartment a few weeks ago,” Sam answered. “But it was worth all the amazing footage I got! The views there, when the sun is setting… it’s really beautiful, Lara. I’m planning on going back there next year- you, Jonah, and his fiancé should totally come with me!”

“I’d love to,” Lara told her, her smile faltering a bit. “I don’t know if Jonah and Abby would, though.”

“What do you mean?” Sam’s previously bubbly smile now fell, being replaced by a look of concern. “Did something happen?”

“No, it’s just… Jonah and I haven’t talked in a while.” Lara sighed, leaning against her desk. “Not since I left Paititi last year. It was only a matter of time before I fell back into… _this._ Searching for ancient mysteries to solve… breaking every rule in the official books of ‘true archeology…’”

Sam chuckled lightly at those words.

“And fighting an ancient militant organisation that seeks control over the supernatural,” Lara added with an air of finality. “I don’t want to drag him back into it. He deserves to be happy. To live his own life without worrying about whether or not he’s going to find a bullet being put in his back, without worrying about whether or not the whole world is going to end because of the power of an ancient deity…”

There was a moment of silence. And then Sam moved to lean against the desk next to Lara. “You should still give him a call.” Lara whipped her head to look at Sam, to protest, but Sam lifted her hand. And Lara close her mouth. “You don’t need to tell him about whatever it is you’re looking for now or any of that. Just, y’know, ask how he’s doing. It’ll do you both some good, to talk. Trust me. It’s _not_ gonna kill you to make _one_ phone call, Lara.”

Lara sighed, considering Sam’s words for a minute. “You’re right. I’ll… I’ll call him tonight.” She laughed a bit as she added, “Hopefully it won’t be too early in the day for him- time zones…”

“I’m sure he won’t mind if it’s you, Lara,” Sam told her reassuringly. She added with an amused smile, “Now, if it were a scammer who was calling him up at the crack of dawn, _that_ would be another story.”

Lara laughed. “That’s _never_ fun.”

Sam pushed herself off the desk, her sneakers scraping lightly against the wooden floor. And then she turned around, settling her hand on Lara’s shoulder. “Call him. Okay?”

“I already said I would.”

“I know how you are, Lara,” Sam countered, still clearly amused. “Now c’mon. How about I help you out with your current project, and then tonight we can have some popcorn and maybe watch a movie- and don’t use that as an excuse to back out of calling Jonah. At least do it before you go to bed.”

Lara was silent for a moment.

“I appreciate your offer to help me,” she finally spoke, “but I don’t want to drag you into this either.”

“Lara, I’m not a little kid. I’m an adult-”

“And one of my best friends-”

“-and I’m fully capable of making my own decisions. I’ve been taking self-defense classes and I’ve been reading a lot of books on how to use and maintain guns ever since Yamati. I can take care of myself.”

“Sam, when I was in Italy, I was attacked by _soldiers_ \- and they’re not from Trinity- at least I don’t think they are. We would be going up against well-trained, heavily armed soldiers- a few self-defense courses are _not_ enough to-”

“I know I’m far from being is good as you when it comes to this sort of thing,” Sam interrupted, “but I’m not gonna let you do this alone. You’re my best friend. Best friends stick together.”

Lara sighed tiredly, lifting a hand to rub her forehead. Her neck was even tighter than before now, and her head was pounding so hard she was starting to feel nauseous. “Alright, you win… but if I tell you to do something, you do it, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt because of me.”

“You’re such a worrywart,” Sam teased. “But fiiiine. I’ll _try_ to listen. Now, how about we head into the kitchen, and I can start making us some popcorn early for movie night while you catch me up to speed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided Jonah won't be in this fic, at least, not in any major capacity. The guy deserves some time off, and anyways, two characters are hard enough to manage as it is. Also, I headcanon that Lara has TWO best friends, and no one can change my mind.
> 
> Besides, who says you can't have more than one best friend? 
> 
> Also, yes, Lara did swipe Ezio's hidden blade, and yes, I do plan on her occasionally using it. But I still want to write her using her bow and her climbing axe for the most part. I also want to write a scene with her dual wielding pistols like in the earlier Tomb Raider games. I just have to find the right moment. <3


	3. Apple

“So you think that there might be some kind of connection between these people?”

Lara and Sam sat on the office floor across from each other, sheets of paper and open books spread out around them, creating an almost hazardous obstacle course to step around whenever one of them had to use the bathroom. It was especially treacherous when they came back at one point with their lunches. Both of them almost tripped more than once.

Thankfully, neither of them were injured, nor lost their food.

Next to Lara sat a plate of her half-eaten tuna sandwich, and on her lap sat a large leather-bound book. “I know I’ve seen that staff before- there was a painting my dad found years ago… I don’t know where it is now, but there might be a photograph of it or something in one of his books. I just have to find it. I know I saw it in something else too, but-”

Lara stopped speaking, and stared down at the page she’d just turned.

“What is it?” Sam asked after swallowing a bite of her own tuna sandwich. She set her food down on her plate as Lara answered.

“This sketch-” Lara turned the book around so Sam could see, and she pointed towards the photograph of a drawing on the page. “This is a sketch of an assassin from Masyaf- and if you look at his right hand, you can see-” She moved her finger down to his hand. “- he has what looks like a piece of that staff. And according to what my father wrote below the photograph, this object in particular is called an ‘Apple of Eden,’ and the general term for it and its other variants are ‘Pieces of Eden.’”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “I’ve heard of a lot of mythical artifacts over the years, thanks to you, but… this is the first I’ve heard of these.”

“Mmm, same,” Lara replied, rotating the book back around again so she could flip through it some more. “It’s almost like… it’s been erased from history- and on purpose…” She stopped and turned the book back around. On the page, it showed a photograph of a sketch featuring a Spartan mercenary named Kassandra with a Piece of Eden that- according to what Richard wrote below the photo- was known as a “Staff of Eden.” “It’s one thing for an object from a singular point in history to fade from the world’s knowledge. That, I can understand. But from _multiple_ points in history?” With the book still facing Sam, Lara turned several of the pages back, one by one, pausing between each one so her friend could see what was on the pages.

Various moments in history… and in the palm of each individual responsible for causing those events sat a Piece of Eden. Not all of them were golden orbs or staffs. Some were swords, and others were pieces of golden cloth.

If it hadn’t been for Richard Croft’s scribblings underneath each picture, neither Lara nor Sam would have known these artifacts had been connected.

“I remember seeing some of these photographs before,” Lara explained, “but I don’t remember _when.”_ She rubbed her aching forehead as she tried to pull the memory to the forefront of her mind, but… it just _wouldn’t_ budge. She sighed, shaking her head. “I guess my age is catching up with me,” Lara added with some amusement.

Sam snorted at the terrible joke. “I’m sure it’ll come back to you soon, Lara. Just give it time. Don’t try to force it. You’ve obviously already got a bad enough headache as it is.”

Lara laughed and replied, “You’ve got a point there.” She turned the pages some more, and stopped. She stared at the fragments of a photograph that had been previously taped to the page, but was torn off some time later. Underneath it, words had been scribbled out.

Below the scribbled-out words, Richard had written: “No one is safe.”

“‘No one is safe,’” Lara read aloud. She turned the book around again so Sam could see. “It looks like my father must’ve found something… but whatever it was, it’s not in this book anymore.”

Sam squinted at the page for a moment and then looked up at Lara. “You think he might’ve found something dangerous? Something he couldn’t let anyone else get their hands on? And maybe he hid it- or even destroyed it?”

“It’s possible,” Lara answered. “This is the only book we’ve found so far that even talks about these Pieces of Eden. It’s possible my father stopped looking for them if he found out something about them that made them dangerous. Maybe he didn’t want Trinity to find them. Such _power_ … if Trinity got their hands on even one of these Pieces of Eden… but then… why haven’t they found any of these artifacts before? Trinity has been around for _centuries,_ and these Pieces of Eden have been responsible for _multiple_ historical events. Surely they would have at least encountered one of these artifacts.”

“Unless…” Sam paused. “What if someone else stopped them? Kept them from getting their hands on them? I doubt that you’re the first person to ever go up against Trinity, Lara- it’s possible that maybe someone who came before kept these Pieces of Eden out of reach.”

“Yes…” Lara tapped her chin in thought. “But humans can only live for so long… and these Pieces of Eden have clearly been around for _hundreds,_ if not thousands, of years…” She snapped her fingers in realisation. “Not just _one_ person. But a _group._ A group of people dedicated to prevent artifacts like the Pieces of Eden from falling into the wrong hands! A group as old as Trinity, maybe even older!” Lara paused, thinking. “But who are they? Where did they come from? And who else might be after these artifacts?”

Sam shrugged, clearly trying not laugh as she of course didn’t have the answers to any of those questions. “Well, I guess we’d better keep looking- even if your father stopped looking for the Pieces of Eden, he might have found something about those people at some point. Assuming they exist, of course.”

Lara nodded in agreement. “Yes, let’s keep searching. There’s got to be something here…”

* * *

_Croft Manor… 10:30 P.M. at night…_

Sam was taking up half the couch, her cheek squished against the armrest as she snored away. The giant popcorn bowl she and Lara had shared was now set on the floor, and the movie credits having finished rolling about half an hour ago.

Lara was still awake, sitting on what little of the couch was left available to her, cell phone in hand. She had dialed and undialed Jonah’s number three, maybe four times. And now she just sat there, staring at her phone’s screen. Jonah’s number was dialed, and the little green call icon beckoning… Lara cleared the number again. She couldn’t do it.

She knew if she called him, she’d just drag him right back into this mess.

Lara couldn’t do that to him. She couldn’t drag him back into this. Back into ancient myths with cataclysmic consequences if tampered with, back into her war with gun-toting psychopaths… Jonah was finally happy. He was finally _living_ again. Lara knew she’d only screw it up if he got him involved in all this again.

She couldn’t do that to one of her best friends.

Lara turned off her phone and set it on the wooden coffee table in front of her. She sighed, settling her hand on her forehead. Sam had forced her to take something for the pain, and it did admittedly bring down the ache for the most part. There was still an inkling of pain, however.

The hairs on the back of her neck rose, distracting her from her thoughts for the moment.

Something was off.

“Winston?” Lara called out in a low whisper, then she bit her lip. If there was an intruder in the manor, Lara shouldn’t be drawing attention to herself. She pushed herself to her feet and crouched down, fumbling silently for the pistol she had holstered to the underside of the table. Her fingers wrapped around the pistol’s cool leather grip and she carefully slid it out from its sheath.

Lara then pulled the cartridge out, then slid it back into the weapon after confirming it was indeed loaded.

She tightened her grip on the handgun and started tiptoeing across the room, lifting the pistol so she can aim and shoot if necessary. All her senses were on high alert, speaking to her, whispering warnings…

But not of danger?

Lara rounded the corner and silently shuffled down the hallway to her father’s office. If there was an intruder in the manor, undoubtedly they broke in for something of her father’s. They would pay dearly for this mistake. Lara reached the closed door of her father’s office and kicked it open, pointing her pistol at the intruder.

“Who are you?” Lara demanded, looking the intruder up and down. She couldn’t believe what she was even seeing. Maybe letting Sam talk her into taking something for her headache hadn’t been the best idea. Because she was clearly hallucinating-

Who in their right mind breaks into a house while wearing an outfit ridiculously reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance era?

“There’s no need to point that at me, _amico mio,”_ the strangely-dressed man told her. He seemed to be very soft-spoken. “For one, I have no intention of harming you, let alone the means. Secondly, that firearm will do you no good in terms of trying to kill me.”

“Don’t _tempt_ me into testing that theory,” Lara retorted bluntly. “Now- _who_ are _you?”_

“Not your enemy, that much is for certain,” the man answered. He ran a hand through his reddish-brown hair, chewing his lower lip. “In all honesty, I never expected for anyone to find the tomb, let alone take my friend’s _weapons.”_

“I’m really sorry, but I needed-” Lara stopped as her mind finally processed the rest of what he’d said. “Wait, you said he was your friend? But Ezio died _centuries_ ago-”  
  
“As did I,” the man interrupted. “For a time. The damned fool… it’s only because Ezio did not listen to me that I speak to you now.”

 _“Who are you?”_ Lara demanded once more, tightening her grip on her pistol and sliding her finger down closer to the trigger. “And what do you want?”

Before he could answer, the world around them seemed to fade into darkness, as did he. Lara could her a voice faintly calling her name. And it was growing louder… and louder, as it seeped through the cracks of her mind.

Her eyes fluttered open and closed repeatedly for a few seconds. The sensation of a firm hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her, now registered. Opening her eyes, Lara tilted her hand to see Sam looking at her with a worried expression spread across her features.

“Are you okay, Lara?” Sam asked. “You fell asleep during the movie, and you seemed pretty damn restless. I mean, you kicked me _twice_ in your sleep.”

“Sorry about that, Sam- but, I’m fine,” Lara reassured her, yawning and stretching her limbs. “I was dreaming… but it was… more _strange_ than anything else.” Blinking tiredly, the thrill-seeker offered her friend a reassuring smile. “I’m alright, really.”

“If you say so.” Sam shrugged and added, “I fell asleep too- I think it’s twelve something now.”

“Shit,” Lara muttered, checking her watch. Sure enough, it was twelve forty-three P.M. Would Jonah even still be awake by now? And if so, would he be eating dinner or something? If there was one thing Lara could never wrap her head around, it was time zones.

“Miss Croft?”

Lara whipped her head to the side to see Winston walking into the living room, a thin, pale blue envelope clutched between his gloved hands. “Yes?”

“This letter came for you in the mail,” Winston told her, sliding the piece of paper between her waiting fingers. “At least, I believe it is a letter.”

“Thank you, Winston.” Lara tore the top of the envelope and pulled out the folded slip of paper inside. She tossed the envelope on the coffee table in front of her and unfolded the sheet of paper. As the elderly butler left, no doubt to tend to his other duties for the day, Lara began to read the letter aloud.

“Dear Lara Croft,

“I, Warren Vidic, would personally like to meet with you in my office at the local Abstergo Industries Headquarters here in London to discuss something of mutual interest to us both. It is in our best interests if we are allies in this. Abstergo HQ hours are from 5:00 A.M. to 8:30 P.M. Go to the front desk and state your full name. Once that is done, you should receive no trouble from my subordinates. 

If, however, they do attempt to cause you trouble, do not hesitate to inform either me or one of the security personnel on duty.

I look forward to working with you, Miss Croft.

Sincerely,

Warren Vidic.”

Lara stared at the letter for a moment longer before folding it shut.

“That’s… really suspicious,” were the first words out of Sam’s mouth. Lara looked over at her, and Sam added, “You’re not even home a _day,_ and the head of Abstergo Industries wants to _meet_ with you? Maybe it’s nothing, Lara but…” Sam sighed, shaking her head. “I dunno. Something really doesn’t sit right with me. I… the way he worded it, the _timing-_ I feel like I did when we were on our way to Yamati- I felt like something really bad was going to happen and… a whole _lot_ of bad things happened. _Maybe_ it’s nothing, maybe he’s just interested in your work in general- like, maybe he just wants to fund some of your expeditions or something, I don’t know- but my instincts say there’s only danger waiting for you there.”

“My instincts tell me the same,” Lara replied, nodding in agreement. “This can’t be a coincidence. When I was exploring the Lair of Romulus, I was attacked by a man. No insignia, nothing. I don’t know if he was from Trinity or… but, when I took his walkie-talkie from him, I _saw_ the logo stamped on it. Abstergo Industries.”

“Well, _that’s_ not surprising,” Sam told her with a light chuckle. “They’ve been getting really popular in the past few years.”

“I know, I know- but you said it yourself, something’s not right here.” Lara ran her fingers through her auburn hair as she tried to piece together her thoughts. “I’m home less than a day, and Warren Vidic wants to meet with me. _Maybe_ it was just a coincidence that those soldiers were using products made by Abstergo, but I can’t rule out the possibility that… that it was Abstergo that sent them after me in the first place.”

“You’ve got a point there.” Sam paused. “So what do we do?”

Lara offered her friend a small smile. “I’m going to pay Warren Vidic a visit.” The smile disappeared. “But I want you to stay here for now in case things go wrong-”

“Lara-”

“Sam, for one, I don’t want you being caught in what might be a shootout,” Lara interrupted. “Secondly, I need someone to protect my father’s findings. There’s no one I trust more than you.”

“Awww.” Sam looked down at her hands, which were lying on her lap, trying to hide her smile. Eventually, she lifted her gaze back to Lara. “Okay, I’ll stay here. But promise me you’re coming back.”

“Sam-”

“Promise,” Sam repeated, her voice firm.

“Fine, I promise.” Lara sighed, standing up and swinging her arms absent-mindedly as she pondered just how she was going to pull this off. No doubt security would make her give up her weapons and while Lara was relatively adept at hand-to-hand combat, she doubted she’d last very long trying to fend off a dozen guards armed with assault rifles and the like, while she had nothing but her hands.

The solution?

Don’t use the front door. And she knew just the person who could help. She just wished that she didn’t have to keep dragging people into her messes.

* * *

 _Two hours later…_

“Slow and steady,” Lara murmured to herself softly, pressing her back against the cool window as she carefully rounded the corner of the building. Currently, she found herself scaling the outside of Abstergo Industries, at least a few hundred feet above the pavement, and no doubt risking arrest- among other things- if found out. The neck scarf around her face started to slide down her nose, and she had to pull it back up to better conceal.

The sun was high in the sky still, not that it mattered considering the current time of year. The air was chilly, gently biting what little of Lara’s face was exposed. The wind whipped about, blowing her bangs around her eyes every now and then. The rest of her head was covered by the cotton cap on her head, and her usual ponytail stuffed underneath the back of her sweater and coat. The rest over her body was covered in multiple layers, so she wouldn’t be freezing.

Lara’s plan was to get on Vidic’s computer and look at its contents in order to assess whether or not he was a threat, or genuinely interested in meeting with her with no ulteriour motives. If she could prove it to be the latter, then she would meet up with him properly. If it was the former… if he was a threat, then it meant Lara was in a deeper mess than she previously thought.

Either way, she was going to find the truth. She just hoped that she was wrong, that it was just a coincidence. _But it’s_ never _just a coincidence._

_Never._

Lara reached what appeared to be the window looking into the hallway leading to Vidic’s office.

Luckily, someone had left it partially open to let in cool air- in a moment here, it would be letting in more than that. Lara pushed the window open more so she could squeeze through. Her boots hit the carpeted floor with a soft thud. Pulling the cap on her head lower and her scarf higher, she hurried to Vidic’s office and pressed her ear to the closed door to make sure no one was inside. Once satisfied, Lara turned the door handle and let the door swing open.

She didn’t have a lot of time- by now, security had to have gotten their cameras working again. Sure enough, the IEM in her ear squelched to life as she hurried over to Vidic’s laptop and opened it.

 _“Lara, you’d better hurry up in there- security just got their cameras back online, and they had to have seen you by now,”_ Zip’s voice crackled through the speakers.

“I’m in Vidic’s office right now,” Lara told him in a hushed whisper as Vidic’s computer took it’s sweet old time starting up. “Shit!” she muttered once it finally turned on. “It’s locked with a password, _of course._ The laptop.”

 _“Put the hard drive I gave you into one of the computer’s USB ports,”_ Zip told her. _“It’ll give you access to Vidic’s laptop and bypass all of his password-protected files.”_

“Got it!” Lara pulled the hard drive out of one of her pouches and slid it into the appropriate slot. “I’m in.”

 _“God, I can’t believe we’re even_ doing _this. I can’t believe_ I’m _doing this.”_

“I know, it was a lot to ask for, Zip- especially since we haven’t talked in… a very long time,” Lara replied softly as she started sifting through the files on Vidic’s computer. “But I couldn’t do this on my own.”

_“Yeah, yeah. I just… I really hope you know what you’re doing, Lara. Because I’m not going to try to save you if you get caught. No offense, but the last thing I need right now is to go to jail for this.”_

“I understand, Zip. Even if I do get caught… I can take care of myself.” Lara paused after clicking open a folder. She stared at one file in particular. “The Animus Project…” She clicked on it. “… oh my god.”

_“What is it, Lara?”_

“The Animus Project,” Lara breathed. “They’re kidnapping people and _using_ them to- to view their genetic memories. The memories of their _ancestors._ They’re trying to use those memories to find- oh shit… _shit!”_ Lara stepped back from the laptop, her eyes wide as she stared at the three words typed in bold. “They’re trying to find an Apple of Eden…” She paused as she read the last few sentences of the final paragraph of that particular document. “… so they can _use_ it to take control of the world.”

Their endgame… it was just like Trinity’s. Using- _stealing_ artifacts with supernatural powers to control everything. To supposedly make the world better.

 _“What the_ hell _are you talking about- that doesn’t even make_ any _sense!! Why would Abstergo want to control the world?!?”_

“But that’s _why_ Vidic wanted me here,” Lara told Zip. “If he captured me, he could use the Animus to view my father’s genetic memories. If my father discovered the location of one of these Apples of Eden, then… I can’t let them find even _one_ of these artifacts. I just _can’t._ I _have_ to stop them, no matter what it takes.” Determination now flowed through her veins as she started speed-walking out of the office and down the hall. “I didn’t destroy Trinity just so some other _bastards_ with a _death wish_ could fill their shoes.”

“Then why _did_ you stop Trinity?”

Before Lara could reach the still-open window at the corner of the hall, where it turned left towards the elevator, a balding man with a somewhat scruffy grey beard stepped out from around the corner. Warren Vidic. It had to be him. He was accompanied by two guards in Abstergo Security uniforms- both of them armed with assault rifles.

“Was it ‘out of the goodness of your heart?’” Vidic asked her, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “No. It was because you _had_ to be the _hero,_ didn’t you, Miss Croft?” He took a step forward, folding his arms behind his back as he looked her up and down. “No matter. Actually, your destruction of Trinity worked to our _advantage._ Now that they are out of our way, we have one less enemy to concern ourselves with. And not only that, but- now that you’re here… we can finally do what must be done for the good of mankind.”

Lara snorted. “‘For the good of mankind,’” she repeated. “Is that what you tell yourself every day so you can _sleep_ at night??”

“Surrender quietly, and perhaps it will not be necessary for us to make a mess,” Vidic commanded, ignoring her angry quip. “Regardless of whether you are dead or alive, I _will_ get what I _want_ from you. And _nothing-_ not you- not even the Assassins, can stop me.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Lara snarled. Before Vidic could react, she was already hurling a knife into one of the guards’ throats. As the other one started shooting (his aim was just as bad as the soldiers who were after her in the Lair of Romulus), Lara sprinted towards the open window. She yelped as a bullet hit her shoulder, but she didn't stop running. Lara hurled herself over the edge, whirling her body around so she could grasp the window sill. Her now-bleeding shoulder was complaining loudly, nerves screaming in pain, but she ignored it. Whipping her head down, she could see a dump truck full of piles of garbage bags- among other things- down below. 

Lara didn't hesitate. She let go, plummeting down several floors before she crashed into the dump truck's waiting load, which cushioned her landing for the most part.

Bleeding worse now, and even more bruised than before to boot, Lara crawled towards the edge of the truck’s container (or whatever the hell it was called) and flung herself over the side. Her feet hit the asphalt road and she ran as fast as she could away from the building.

_“Lara? Lara!! Are you okay?!?”_

“I’m fine, Zip,” Lara told him, panting as she sprinted down the nearest alleyway and scrambled up the side of a brick barrier. As she clambered over the top to the other side, she added, “I made it out of the building, but I ran into Vidic. He knows I broke into Abstergo Industries… it’s not safe for you if we keep in contact. Not only will Abstergo be after me now, but Vidic may even get the authorities involved. You have to destroy any evidence that points to you having contact with me. You may even need to disappear.”

_“I can take care of myself, Lara. You… you be careful out there.”_

“You too, Zip. Thank you… for helping me.”

 _“Don’t mention it,”_ Zip told her. _“Seriously, don’t.”_

Lara, despite the rather grim situation, couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “Alright. I won’t.” With that, she pulled her IEM out of her ear and, stopping for only a moment, she crushed it beneath her boot.

And then she ran.

She still didn’t have a clear picture of what exactly she’d gotten herself into, but if there was one thing for certain, it was bigger than Trinity. Bigger than anything she had ever face before. And it terrified her.

Lara knew there was two things she had to do above all else. Get Sam and Winston to safety, out of Abstergo’s reach… and stop Abstergo at _all_ costs.

“No matter what it takes,” Lara muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zip is character from some of the Tomb Raider games that came out before the reboot series by Square Enix. Sorry I really didn't do him justice here dsjdfkjgjhfgh I may try to bring him back into the narrative in a larger capacity, to make up for this chapter.
> 
> Also, while the Assassin's Creed games after Brotherhood are not considered canon to this story, I decided to reference Kassandra anyways because she's cool sjfsfhjhfhj Deal with it. <3 Additionally, kudos goes to the person who correctly guesses the name of the man Lara spoke to in her "dream."
> 
> Anyways, apologies for this garbage chapter skdjsjdj I'll try to make up for it in the next one.


	4. Croft Manor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rewrote some stuff from the previous chapter, so you might want to reread it to avoid confusion-

Lara silently tiptoed along the grass, approaching the tall stone wall surrounding the manor. She grabbed one of the stones jutting out of the wall just a tad bit more than its counterparts, and hoisted herself up. Clinging onto the stone with both hands, and having carefully placed her feet on the wall just below the stone, she then hurled herself upwards, arms flinging up so her hands could grasp the ledge above. Once her fingers secured their grip and her boots were firmly planted against the wall once more, Lara pushed herself up, and swung one leg over the side, then the other. And then she pushed herself off, instinctively curling herself into a ball and rolling upon impact with the ground so as to avoid making too much noise and injuring herself further.

Though with the way her still-bleeding-a-bit shoulder was screaming for rest, she probably was still injuring herself more. In any case, that was the least of her concerns. She peered out over the top of the low hedge by the wall, the saturation fading from her vision as her targets began to glow softly in the night, indicating their positions.

A soldier patrolling the area stopped, removing his walkie-talkie and clicking it on. “You find anything?”

 _“Nope,”_ came the crackly response. _“We’ve swept the place twice already. Nothing on the Pieces of Eden yet, but we’ll keep looking.”_

Lara let out a soft sigh of relief, a faint smile spreading across her lips. “Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Winston.” They had to have made it out safely with her father’s book. With any luck, Abstergo would never find them. Lara just hoped Sam wouldn’t come back for her.

Either way, Lara still needed to do something about these soldiers.

Lara fumbled about for her combat knife, then cursed silently upon remembering that she’d hurled it into the throat of one of Vidic’s guards. _What a great idea, Lara- there’s absolutely no way you might have needed that._ All she had left on her at the moment was her pistol and… she tugged down her layers of sleeves, remembering the bracer she had borrowed (technically _stolen,_ but she wasn’t about to get into _that_ right this second) from Ezio’s tomb. Peering at the tip of the blade sticking out between the raised folds of leather, she wondered exactly how she could trigger the rest of the blade to extend. If she couldn’t figure it out, she would have to resort to using her pistol- something she did not look forward to having to do, since even with a silencer it still made a lot of noise.

Flexing her wrist carefully, she felt part of her lower arm press against something inside that was slightly raised. Whatever it was sunk with the pressure, and with the rest of the blade slid out with a soft _shink._

“A switch,” Lara murmured. She flexed her wrist again, and the blade sunk back into its resting place. “Ingenious- I wonder if Ezio designed it himself, or if someone else designed it for him…” Either way, it was her best shot at disposing these soldiers out here in the courtyard quietly.

Lara peered over the hedge again and counted the number of soldiers, as well as noted their positions.

Two were standing in the corners, by the hedges- and they didn’t even seem to be paying all that much attention to their surroundings. The third one paced back and forth slowly, eyes searching for any sign of trouble. The fourth was sitting down on a wooden crate in another corner, knocking back a flask. One archeologist against four soldiers, all concentrated in this one area. Lara liked those odds. Now she just needed to come up with a game plan. If even one soldier noticed that another was absent, they would be suspicious. And if they discovered a body, they would raise the alarm and all hell would break loose.

The one who was pacing back and forth was the one who would cause the most trouble. Therefore, he would be the one Lara would have to deal with first. Picking up a small stone from the ground, Lara silently trudged down to the corner of the hedge and tossed it towards the fountain. The stone _clacked_ as it bounced off the fountain and along the stone path of the courtyard.

“What was that?!”

“I’ll go check it out, you guys keep watch. And _you_ \- put down the damn flask. We’re here on a _mission._ Try to take it seriously.”

The soldier who had been drinking slurred something incomprehensible in reply.

Afterwards, Lara heard the sound of footsteps approaching the fountain. She flexed her wrist, and the bracer’s blade extended. As the soldier came into view, Lara lunged forward, her free hand flying up to cover his mouth while she sunk her blade deep into his neck, killing him almost instantly. She then pulled the dead man’s body through the hedge and carefully laid it down.

One soldier down. Three to go. At least, out here in the courtyard that is.

Lara tiptoed behind the hedge back to where the other soldiers were. It would be so much easier to take the rest of them out if it was dark out. With the sun still high in the sky, bathing the courtyard with light, it was bound to make things a lot harder. There had to be a way to get them all to scatter _without_ drawing attention to the fact that she killed one of their men.

Lara picked up another rock.

Perhaps the same method would work twice. It was worth a shot.

She picked up a second rock in her other hand, and then quickly but quietly shuffled back over to where she had killed the one soldier. After pushing his body between a tree and the hedge to better hide it, she threw one stone at the fountain, and waited.

“It’s that damn noise again! Where the hell did Jim go anyway? He should’ve been back by now if it was nothing.”

“Maybe he went to take a leak?”

“I dunno, he’d have said something. Let’s go check it out.”

As the two still-sober soldiers started approaching the fountain, Lara threw the other stone towards the flower garden on the other side of the path.

“The _hell_ is making that _noise?!”_

While the one soldier started looking around the hedges by the fountain, his assault rifle at the ready, the other soldier jogged over to the flower garden. With the nearest soldier having his back to her, Lara sprinted towards him and drove her blade into his throat, her free hand covering his mouth so not a sound could leave it. She quickly dragged his body behind the hedge closest to them and crouched down just as the soldier inspecting the flower bed turned around.

“What the- where-?!?” He lifted his assault rifle and removed the magazine, checking its ammunition count before sliding it back into the weapon. “I swear, if you assholes are trying to pull some kinda prank on me, it’s _not_ funny.”

Lara hoped he would turn around so she could sneak up behind him and deal with him before he could figure out what was going on. He did turn around, just as she’d hoped- but only to approach the hedge where the first dead soldier’s body was hidden. And he was coming up to the very spot where his body was hidden, too.

Lara rushed out of hiding, and lunged just as the soldier started to turn. She shoved her blade into his throat, knocking his body to the ground and pulling her down with him at the same time. She landed in a crouch, and yanked her blade out of his neck.

The man had died before he could even comprehend what just transpired.

Lara turned her attention to the drunk soldier still sitting on the crate, blissfully unaware of his comrades’ fates. He had apparently fallen asleep, if the loud snoring and his hunched over position was anything to go by.

After dragging the third soldier’s body behind the hedges and slinging his assault rifle over her shoulders (after checking its magazine, of course), Lara decided to leave the drunk one be. He couldn’t exactly cause trouble if he stayed asleep. And from the looks of things, he would be sleeping for a good long while.

Lara sprinted silently across the courtyard and leapt towards the garden trellis, reaching out her hands to latch onto the wooden structure. “Hope it can still hold my weight,” she murmured as she started climbing. She pulled herself up over the side and crawled up to the next trellis. The wood underneath her creaked threateningly. Lara reached out and grabbed the trellis in front of her with one hand, then the other. Pulling herself carefully so she wouldn’t put too much weight on one spot on the trellis underneath her, Lara managed to secure her hold on the next one and started climbing once more. The wooden boards underneath her hands and feet continued to creak. Soon, however, Lara was pulling herself up safely over the edge of the trellis and onto the porch. A few feet away, she could see the window of her father’s office.

And three soldiers were inside- all carelessly ripping books out of the bookcases, then throwing them aside after skimming through and finding nothing about the Pieces of Eden.

“I can’t take all of them at once,” Lara muttered to herself, crouching low as she tiptoed towards the wall. “Not without drawing attention to myself. There has to be some way I can get rid of them all without causing a shootout.” Her eyes locked onto the small, thin wooden trellis lining the manor wall several feet away. “If I can get to my weapons…” A path to her objective melted into formation in her mind. She stayed low, shuffling along the wall below the window towards the trellis. Upon reaching it, she latched on with her hands and began to shimmy around the corner of the wall, her breaths quick and shaky, and her shoulder practically crying for rest.

_“What does Lara have anything to do with this? She’s in her room, doing her homework.”_

Lara’s breath trembled more, and she shook her head of the memory. _Focus, Lara- focus. Focus is key._ She closed her eyes for a moment, shutting out everything but the climb ahead. She shimmied across the rest of the trellis, then across the wooden window doors, and then latched onto the trellis lining the other side. Lara started to climb upwards, wincing as the wood continued to creak ominously. “Careful, careful…” She yelped as the wooden board cracked, splinters flying. So much for being careful. At the same time she pushed herself up with her feet, hands releasing the board and fumbling about. Her fingers wrapped around the metal pipe, and she sighed with some relief.

Lara shimmied around to the other side and what awaited her but more trellis to climb? “Wonderful,” she muttered sarcastically. “If I fall to my death here and now, I wonder what my epitaph would say.”

Lara continued her ascent, trying to tune out the creaking of the wood as she climbed. She shimmied to the right upon reaching the metal pipe above the trellis, and her hands latched onto the partially rotten window frame next to it. The wood snapped underneath her weight and Lara lunged upwards, her hands flying up to snag the Croft logo that had been carved into the stone above. She tightened her grip and reached up with one hand, fingers wrapping around dipping stone. Soon enough, Lara was shimmying along the edge of the top of the building, thankful that the gutter that had been there when she last did this as a child had been moved during her renovations of the manor.

Lara unfortunately could not say the same for the crows. While it wasn’t the same one she encountered here all those years ago, nonetheless it was sitting in the exact same spot. Perhaps they liked it for the view- who knows how many sources of food the birds would be able to spy from up here.

Regardless- the crow was in her way. It had to move.

“Shoo, _shoo!”_ Lara, maintaining a tight grip on the stone trim with one hand, swatted at the crow with the other. “Get out of here!”

Cawing indignantly, the crow flew off.

Lara continued, and shook her head upon reaching the spot where she had almost fallen to her death all those years ago. And destroyed both the gutter and a pipe in the process. “I’m almost there,” Lara murmured to herself. She pulled herself up over the edge and rolled across the trim, before twisting her body around and landing feet first with a _thud._ She squeezed between the two giant parapets to get to the other side.

Lara sprinted towards the ladder in front of the glass wall rising up from the roof and latched on. She swiftly climbed to the top, carefully lowering herself to a crouch so she wouldn’t fall on her way to the other ladder like last time. Lara lowered herself further, crawling along the patina-stained copper frame that ran along the middle of the glass roof. Glancing down below through the glass, she cringed. There were a _lot_ of soldiers inside. If she fell, or if they looked up…

Lara shook her head, turning her attention back to her goal. She just had to make sure she got to the other side. That was it. That was all that mattered. One thing at a time. Within moments, Lara reached the spot where she fell. “This time, I won’t fall.” She grabbed onto the metal pole, same as before, and carefully placed her foot down on the metal below. “Steady, steady…” After setting her other foot down, Lara shuffled along to where the next pole was and grabbed onto it with her free hand, and then her other hand. She swung her leg, planting on boot on the raised metal next to the pole. “Almost there, Lara. Almost there.” Keeping one hand on the pole, Lara let go with the other and wrapped her gloved fingers around the metal frame. Then she lifted her other foot and placed it onto the frame. “Not over yet,” she muttered. She let go of the pole and resumed crawling. It wasn’t until she reached the ladder and started climbing down it that she breathed a sigh of relief.

And soon enough, she was inside the manor. In the “Forbidden Tomb,” atop the balcony lining the upper level. While the majority of the room stayed the same, Lara did have some changes made in order to hide weapons in here (in fact, nearly every room in the manor had similar changes made to it). It seemed none of the soldiers had made it to this room yet, which was a good thing. Lara sprinted to the metal strongbox housing some of her weapons and punched in the passcode. The lock offered a satisfactory click, and she pulled the lid open. Lara snorted at the irony- this was the same strongbox in which she’d stashed away the bow and quiver she had taken from Ezio’s tomb.

Coincidence? Probably not, but now that Lara had her hands on some more gear, she wasn’t going to complain. So she pulled the quiver over her shoulders first, and then the bow. In addition, there were a pair of climbing axes in the strongbox. More specifically, a set that had been dubbed “Grip of Fear”. She had acquired this set sometime during her stay in Paititi, after a particularly… stressful incident involving a hallucinogenic vapour.

 _No time to think about that now,_ Lara told herself, looping the axes to her belt. She rummaged through the rest of the strongbox’s contents, stuffing supplies for making special arrows and other items into her belt’s pouches.

And then the doors to the room, which were down in the lower level, were violently smashed open. Lara crouched down low behind the balcony railing. Inside stepped a team of five soldiers, two of which carried large metal shields. All of them wore bulky, bullet-proof gear.

Not that it would help them in the slightest.

“Search the shelves- there has to be _something_ in here!” one of the soldiers with a shield shouted to the rest of his team.

Lara meanwhile unbuttoned one of her pouches and pulled out a small canister. After pouring in a few drops of the concoction she had stored in a vial, and a couple of other things, the canister hissed, small plumes of poisonous gas seeping through the thin gaps between the metal seams. Perfect. She tied the canister to an arrow tip with a piece of rope and nocked the arrow to her bowstring. Lara shuffled closer to the rail, and took aim through the gap between the wooden posts, slowly pulling back the string.

And then, she released.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is shorter than the last one, but it felt like a good spot to end it sjdhhdfgjdfh Additionally, I don't know exactly how strong trellises are irl, but let's just say in the Tomb Raider universe that they're just barely strong enough to hold adult Lara's weight.
> 
> Fun fact: Lara's usage of stones to distract the soldiers in the courtyard is a reference to Aloy's (the main character from _Horizon: Zero Dawn_ and the upcoming _Horizon: Forbidden West)_ usage of the same tactic to draw enemies to a specific location. It also was really the only option for getting the soldiers to separate that I could think of, lmao


	5. Eternal and Ephemeral

Once the poison gas dispersed and the soldiers were dead, Lara clambered down the ladder attached to the balcony. She dropped down, her boots hitting the wood floor with a soft _thud_. Gripping a climbing axe in each hand now, she tip-toed across the room towards the large, wooden double doors that led into one of the manor’s many halls. She pressed the side of her head to one of the doors, straining her ear as she listened for any sound indicating the presence of more soldiers. She heard nothing, so she grabbed the door handle and turned it before letting go. The door swung open with a gentle _creak_.

As Lara started treading down the hall, quickly and quietly, she could hear the faint, rapid _thuwmp-thuwmp_ of a helicopter on approach. “You have got to be kidding me,” she muttered. Lara silently hoped that the helicopter just happened to be passing by, and that it _wasn’t_ reinforcements for Abstergo’s soldiers. She knew she wasn’t far from her father’s office now- if she just rounded the corner…

Sticking as close to the wall as possible, Lara peered around the corner of the wall. She could see the door to her father’s office was wide open, and those three soldiers were still there, blissfully unaware of their comrades’ demise just moments ago.

Lara slid an arrow out of her quiver and- after pulling out a canister, filling it with the necessary ingredients, and tying it to the tip of the arrow- nocked it to the bowstring. She drew it back, lifting the bow up so as to aim. And then she released. The arrow struck the floor in her father’s office, and poisonous gas quickly billowed out of the now-destroyed canister. The soldiers inside the room gagged, coughing up blood, and fell to the floor before they could do anything else. 

Lara slid her bow back over her shoulders, and once the poison had dispersed, she sprinted into the office. She retrieved the arrow- which unlike the canister, had survived its flight- and then peered around the curtain to look out the window. The helicopter she’d heard earlier was now settling down in the manor courtyard, and from it leapt out several heavily armed soldiers with long metal shields not unlike those used by Trinity (the only difference being that these shields had the Abstergo logo stamped to the front of them).

“I _hate_ helicopters,” Lara muttered. She turned away from the window and turned her attention towards the books and such that the soldiers she’d just killed had been rifling through. There wasn’t any way she could possibly take the rest of her father’s research with her. That didn’t mean she had to leave empty-handed. So, she snatched up several of his books and maps, and- after sliding the maps into the books so they wouldn’t be damaged- carefully slid the aforementioned books into her pockets.

She then swiped several audio tapes and stuffed those into her pouches too. Once that was done, Lara let her gaze trail across the room one more time. So much of her father’s research… even if she could keep the Pieces of Eden out of Abstergo’s clutches, what of the other supernatural artifacts her father might have been searching for? The Silver Box of Ixchel… the power to remake the world. The Fragments of Mjolnir… the power to bend all to the storms’ will.

She couldn’t let them have it.

 _Any_ of it.

 _“My dearest Lara, I often think about how my father would turn over in his grave if he knew the_ shame _I had brought upon our family's name. Croft... what does it even_ mean? _I just hope you can make your own mark on this world someday. Remember that the extraordinary is in what we_ do _, not who we_ are _.”_

 _“I had listened to his last tape a_ thousand _times. But it's as if I was hearing my father's words only now. For the first time. It doesn't matter what choices he would have made… I have to make my_ own _. The myth of Kitezh was_ real _. There are secrets out there that can_ change _the world, I need to find them. Not for my father, not for anyone else. Trinity is still out there and they're more powerful than I_ ever _imagined. I can stop them, I can make a difference. I can make the_ right _difference.”_

“I can make the right difference,” Lara murmured, not noticing the tear slowly trickling down her cheek. “If I can stop Trinity, then I can stop Abstergo too.” Her chest shuddering softly as she reached into her pouch for the box of matches inside. _There’s no other way._ She opened the box and pulled out one of the matches. She hesitated a moment, and then- closing her eyes- she scraped the match along the box. She heard it catch, instantly smelling the stuff burning, and then she threw it onto her father’s desk.

Opening her eyes, she could see that the desk had caught fire, as well as everything on it.

“I’m sorry.” Lara turned away from the fire, a few more tears trickling down her face. And, after lingering a few seconds more, she sprinted out the room and back into the hallway. She pulled her bow off her shoulders and nocked an arrow to it as she ran.

At the same time the twin doors ahead of her were kicked open, Lara whipped her bow up and let the arrow fly. The thin rod of wood sunk into the soldier’s chest, and he fell backwards onto the floor with a _thud._

* * *

It seemed that no one had managed to break into her father’s secret lab, thankfully, Lara noted as she pressed her hands against the last rune-covered wheel on the stone door in front of her and pushed. Stone scraped against stone, and the wheel gave a satisfactory click. Lara then pressed the appropriate runes- the ones that, if translated, would read her mother’s name. _Amelia._ The wheel, as well as the smaller wheels inside of it, clicked again, and the door slid open. Lara slipped inside, and pulled the lever on the wall next to her.

The door slid back shut and clicked. She could hear stone scraping as the wheels turned to reset themselves into their previous positions.

Lara knew from her father’s audiotapes that- in addition to the family crypt- there was also a secret entrance to some underground catacombs. After having discovered these tapes, and after having Trinity break into the manor to steal her father’s research previously, Lara and Winston came up with a game plan should that ever happen again. While Lara’s father had never been able to map out the catacombs in their entirety, given their massive size, he did explore enough of them to find another entrance- one that could potentially double as an exit, if need be.

It was very likely that Sam and Winston took this route when they escaped.

As she did with her father’s research in the office, Lara had to destroy the research her father had stowed away in the lab as well. After unlocking the door to the family crypt, anyway. While the smoke curled in the air, and the crackling of flames grew, Lara sprinted through the crypt, boots _clanking_ against the stone floor. Once she reached the stone door at the end, she began repeating the same process as she did with the door to the secret lab.

She pressed her hands against the inner wheel and pushed it up to the right. _One… two… three… four._ Then the middle wheel to the left. _One… two… three._ And finally, the outer wheel also to the left. _One… two… three… four… five._

Lara then pressed the appropriate runes- this time for her own name. _Lara._ The door clicked, and the wheels sunk slightly as the slab of stone slid open. She stepped through to the other side, and pulled the lever to shut the door. Lara pressed a small button on the piece of plastic hanging from the strap around her shoulder, and the tunnel ahead was washed in a bright, white light. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and walls. Coughing from the dust being flung up in the air, Lara covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve as she started sprinting down the corridor.

Her father determined that these catacombs were almost as old as the manor itself, which had originally been constructed sometime in the late 1500s to the mid 1600s. Which meant that these catacombs had very likely been constructed by the first Croft who lived here. Why the first Croft would need- let alone _want-_ these massive catacombs to be constructed was beyond Lara. It seemed from her father’s tapes that Richard was on the verge of discovering _why_ the catacombs were there in the first place, but his search ended rather abruptly, as most of his tapes afterwards from that point on were about his expeditions and so forth.

The tunnel opened up into a small chamber with several coffins lining the walls. To Lara’s left, there was another corridor in wait. As she stepped into the centre of the room, head whipping about as she took in her current surroundings, one tape in particular rushed to the forefront of her memory.

 _“The strangest thing about these catacombs so far is, in addition to their_ size _, is the amount of people who were laid to rest here. So many coffins… they could not_ all _be from the Croft family. The ages of these coffins are roughly the same, so it stands to reason that most of these people died within only a few decades. The Croft family was extensive at the time, for sure, but not to_ this _scale. What is even more disconcerting is that when I opened one of the coffins- God,_ forgive _me- I found various_ weapons _inside, in addition to the body. What this means… I do not know. But… it seems that even we_ Crofts _have a lost history. I_ have _to keep searching these catacombs, if I am to uncover their_ purpose _. Their_ reason _for being here in the first place._

_“But… somehow… I have the strangest feeling that I will not like what I find.”_

Lara sighed, before shaking her head and sprinting down the next tunnel. She had to focus on the task at hand, and not get distracted. This thought was rather ironic, considering not even two seconds later, the tile she’d set her boot on sunk into the floor, triggering _something._ Lara attempted to scramble back, thinking that perhaps it was a spike trap, but the floor from underneath her seemed to fallen away, as with a loud shriek of fear, she tumbled a good ways down the incline in the dirt-caked hole.

Lara reached the bottom- or rather what she assumed to be the bottom- via her body crashing down onto a wooden platform. A wooden platform that had been rotting for some time now, as it creaked threateningly. And then the boards snapped, splinters flying.

“Oh _shit!”_

Lara’s body smashed onto the stone floor some feet below, knocking the wind out of her. She gulped down air as she scrambled out of the way as fast as she could, wincing as the sounds of wood splintering behind her reached her ears.

 _Why is it that_ every _time I enter a tomb or a crypt- or anything ancient, really- I_ always _break_ something??

Shaking her head, Lara stayed standing half-bent over, clutching her side in pain as she tried to steady her trembling breaths. Given that Lara was the one to break through that wooden platform (why the hell was it even there in the first place?), she could safely assume that Sam and Winston managed to avoid setting off that particular trap.

The worst part was the fact that her father mentioned there being traps in the catacombs in his tapes on more than one occasion, and she still set one off anyway.

Lara shook her head again. What’s done was done. She tilted her head upwards, straightening her stance as she pulled her hand away from her abdomen. The chamber she had fallen into was _massive_ \- the ceiling was too high to be seen in this level of darkness. The stone walls were quite far apart, with runes and murals carved into them that were too far away to really be studied properly.

She would have to get closer.

Lara stayed where she was for the moment, letting her gaze trail across the rest of the room. There were several crumbling stone columns, some still standing and nothing more than eroded stubs at this point, and the rest were either lying on the floor, or leaning against the walls.

From the corner of her eye, she could just barely see an object stashed away underneath one of the columns leaning against the wall. She turned her heard towards it, the saturation fading from her vision. The object in question glowed a soft blue now, and she slowly approached it, maintaining caution so as to (hopefully) avoid setting off another trap. Since there was no red shimmering anywhere in her vision, she could only hope that this meant there were no traps in this part of the chamber. As Lara got closer, she could see now that the object was a box. She knelt down and carefully opened the lid as the saturation returned to her vision. Inside, there lay a small knife that Lara immediately identified as a _c_ _inquedea_. She picked it up, noting that the blade was still quite sharp. The knife was simplistic in its design, with nothing particularly noteworthy about it.

At least, that was what Lara had thought before turning the weapon over in her hands to examine the other side. Carved into the blade in small letters, in Shakespearean English, the words said, _The ord'r is et'rnal. Thou art ephem'ral._

“‘The order is eternal. You are ephemeral,’” Lara read aloud.

Below, there was more, carved in smaller letters.

_ Just as the ideals of those Enshielf liveth on~ _

_ So doth ours. Death may claimeth our souls~ _

_ But our Voice is et'rnal.  _

_ We art all ephem'ral. _

“‘Just as the ideals of those Hidden live on~’” Lara continued to read, “‘so do ours. Death may claim our souls~ but our Voice is eternal. We are all ephemeral.’ I don’t like the sound of that…” The words sounded as if they were the recitation of some ancient cult’s creed. Lara’s stomach felt as if it was growing cold. _Danger,_ her instincts whispered. She shook her head and slid the knife into one of the sheaths attached to her belt. There was no time to ponder over this right now.

She had to keep moving.

She had to find Sam and Winston, before Abstergo could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not particularly happy with this chapter, but I guess it's better than nothing at all djfsjjkggjh 
> 
> While the other Assassin's Creed games and the comics are not canon, as well as the Tomb Raider comics, I will continue to make references/use elements from them as the story progresses. Also, I apologise if the Shakespearean English is incorrect, I used a generator for it, and I don't think it got it exactly right.
> 
> Also, kudos goes to the person who correctly guesses what ancient organisation the person who owned the cinquedea belonged to. But guess wisely. Take your time and think carefully.


End file.
